The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-07-15

only moistens their dresses, but grows musty
and becomes sticky. Everyone knows that.
It is asmuch part of the female creed to
keep its hair dry as it is the feline rule to
avoid wetting the feet. Will you believe me,
the sex is revolutionized at the Cape? The
ladies there all wet their heads the very first
thing on reaching the surf. Here you see
none of the oil-skin caps or silk kerchiefs
wound around the heads of the ladies as you
do everywhere else along the coast. Mol
Bathing is the main, prime thing and is to
be enjoyed to the utmost. And then drying
the hair, or having the gentlemen dry it, is
such splendid fun. Of course, it is awfully
disagreeable to go around all day with wet
head of hair, but why do so when you have
husband or brother or sweetheart-or in
default of these luxuries, girl friend-to
dry it for you? The consequence of this rev.
olution in feminine methods is that one of
the most peculiar and interesting sights at
the Cape is the hair drying after the bath.
Everywhere you go you see the ladies either
with their locks hung out to dry or surren-
dered to the care of gentlemen busy with
towels toward the same end. The ladies
stand patiently with their backs to the sun
while their gallant attendants spread their
tresses, wiring them, rub them and smooth
them down with towels. This operation is
performed in the little bath-house passage
ways or on the beach or the boardwalk and
when it is over you see the ladies on the hotel
piazzas, in the hotel windows and out in the
open air, each with towel on her back and
her hair spread out on the towel. By one
O'clock dinner-time, their pretty tresses are
dry and ready for the comb and brush.
Another peculiar thing about the Cape and
the bathing there is that the ladies dress for
the bath, going from the hotels to the bath
houses in loose neglge morning wrappers 1
had almost used the words pretty" wrap
pers, but that word wish to reserve for the
ladies themselves. Cape May has, without
exception, the prettiest women visitors of any
place on the coast. The far-famed bea titles
of Baltimore, olive-skinned and with dark
large eyes, are well represented there and so
are the petite but well-mannered and quiet
bellies of the Quaker City and the mixed types
of Washington beauty. I doubt not, too,
that much of the transcendent beauty of the
young women at Cape May is due to their
athletic exercise in the water their fondness
for out-ofdoor life there and the frequent salt
water bathing ITSELF At all events, Cape
May is the home of female loneliness in sum-
mer. The women there are fit companions
for the naiads of poetry as you see them
in tn cir bath robes, and in their everyday
attire at the hotels they are as much more
lovely than the professional beauties of
England as deer are lovelier than kline.
Cape May is inclined to pay close heed
to fashion. The ladies dress very
elegantly for dinner, the hotels give
frequent hops at which one sees both
men and women in full dress, and when
there is no dancing the hosts of boarders
in the capacious hostelries are fond
of assembling in very stylish costumes
on the broad and cool piazzas to listen
to the melody of the well-trained bands.
Yet the hotels are not high-priced, and what
are called the most exclusive sets are only
just beginning to return to the Cape after
having well-nigh abandoned it for many
years. There are very delightful drives.
One is down to the real Cape, which is called
Cape May Point, past the stale and llnprofit-
able wooden elephant, and through sleepy
dead-and-alive cluster of hotels and cottages,